Tuesday, February 21, 2012

This is the beautiful piece that Christine made in her Bead Stringing Class! She learned about balancing the design, crimping, which stringing materials to use and so much more! We had a great time! Take a peek at my website AngelMoose.com for classes and let me know when you are available and what you want to learn!

I'm thinking about offering class kits to take the shopping fear away, let me know what you think about that! Looking forward to hearing from you!

This last visit up to CT we reunited Arielle with her marimba! It was so nice to see her play and hear the music throughout the house! It was lovely!

Arielle made an appearance at a Fair for the Diabetes Foundation and while there someone tried to steal her crown! And then someone actually got it!

Arielle has been having fun on photo shoots! This is one of my absolute favorites!

In January Arielle started school at Western Connecticut State University and we went on a tour of the campus, and I forgot my camera! This was taken with my iphone....I'll have to go back and take some more pictures when I get a chance! It is so beautiful up here!

Lilibelledoes not always bring out Moe's best side!

For Arielle's birthday we went to the Museum of Natural History and visited the Butterflies! Everyone should do this if given the chance, it's a magical experience!

I saw this at the gift shop and it made me chuckle! Fish Kabobs, hahahahahahahahaha!

So, with all the major outside work done for the moment it was time to turn attention inside. This is how the kitchen looked when we purchased the house.It had all the original appliances from 1974. And not all of them were working, or working the way they should. The oven was dead. The stove would work but then would have little explosions and throw fire in your face. The fridge kept moaning at us, you could tell it was not long for this world. The dishwasher worked, but did not clean. And for me the orange plastic panel had to go. We purchased a new fridge with ice maker, so we needed to get a water pipe installed to the fridge. The old dishwasher pipe was hard mounted into the old dishwasher so that needed to be redone also, so while we were at it we decided we might as well move the appliances. As we did, the counters and cabinets fell. We also soon realized the old pipe codes for the oven and stove were 1/2 inch piping and now the code is 3/4 inch, so we needed to have someone come in and run new gas lines. And then we thought a doggie door would be a nice touch! Jonathan did that himself!Lilibelle and Angel picked right up on how to use it and loved flying down the stairs into the back yard. Moe, not so much. We fenced in a small area for them to run around in , but Moe is scared of the stairs. He has gone up and down a couple of times but mostly sits on the porch watching the others run around and play. It's so sad, we need to work on that! We have a little time to help him while we wait for the tile and cabinets to arrive!

So, last week my computer started acting "funny." On Wednesday it stopped printing and Arielle thought it could possibly be a virus. Jonathan came home from FL on Thursday and by that time I couldn't get word documents to open. Friday I had to keep rebooting my computer to get my programs to reopen. Saturday, Jonathan went to see what was wrong and by that time I had lost my entire email program. It was not a virus and I am very thankful for that, my version of Office for Windows from 2004 was slowly dying. Arielle installed the new version of software for me and I'm getting back to work! I will say it is quite different from the old version, but I'll figure it all out!

Thursday, February 02, 2012

So, in between the work being done to the house and running back and forth between NJ and CT and Arielle starting school - we worked on my new website! It is a work in progress, but I had so much fun looking through all the pictures and picking what classes to list! It is so exciting to start a new venture! Now the work begins for me to update all the classes and get all the correct information for you - but please contact me if you would like to get together with me to finish up your projects or to learn new ones! If something is not listed let me know.

I am incredibly blessed and thankful for my daughter! (For many reasons, not just this!) She did such an incredible job designing this website for me! Arielle, you are amazing! Thank you and I love you!

It was amazing to me just how many cars and trucks we could get up in our driveway. But there was so much work that needed to be done! We got rid of all the flying squirrels in our attic and they are now living upstate CT. The mice and other rodents and reptiles living in our basement and walls did not fare as well. The house has been sanitized and reinsulated! Just in time for our first snow! I just love it up here! And this is what I saw first thing in the morning while walking the dogs. Amazing.

So now for the fun.

We removed the old fireplace insert,

cleaned up and fixed the chimney and had a gas line put in so we will have heat.

Then sat back and enjoyed it. (While trying to ignore what was going on in the kitchen....)

Wow, time really does fly! We became the proud owners of a vacation home in CT on December 18th and I have spent most of my time since then up there! Arielle will be living up there full time with her dog, Lilibelle, while going to school and I will be a frequent visitor! Ted got to see the house before he went back to CA, but can't wait for him to spend some time up here with us!

Angel and Moe were not too sure about sleeping on air mattresses but they adjusted quite quickly! Lillibelle and Arielle settled right in!

No internet was hard on all of us!

Angel and Moe were more upset that their were no stockings with bones for them. We made it up to them!

I'm back in New Jersey and looking forward to seeing everyone again, and BEADING!